Train Accident in Santiago de Compostela
 

Yesterday evening an Alvia train coming from Madrid derailed when it was arriving to Santiago. There are at least 77 deaths and most of the people travelling have been injured.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...ain-crash-dead
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...0721158120.htm

Today is Santiago´s day, the big festival for people from Galicia and pilgrims alike. All the festivities have been cancelled, beginning with yesterday´s "burning of the Obradoiro".

It is a most terrifying feeling ...

Rgds, Cova

Yes...terrifying... I was in Santiago de Compostela only 10 months ago. A wonderful place that somehow manages to blend "easy and relaxed" with "youthful buzz". Strolling in Alameda Park is especially delightful, and (whether you're religious or not) Sunday mass at the cathedral with all the modern-day "pilgrims" was a memorable experience. So sorry to hear about this recent tragedy. Very sad.

A terrible tragedy.

so tragic -- my thoughts are with all involved.

Very sad to hear of train crash in Santiago d C. Thoughts and prayers for families and friends of those hurt or killed.

Thanks for the link Cova. Terrible tragedy.

The news stories are terrible. It seems that almost no one on the train escaped uninjured, except the engineers, who were incredibly distraught.

Officials say they are moving away from theories that any foul play was involved. It appears that the train took a curve at 3 times the recommended speed, perhaps because it was already running late.

Or the engineer was high. Ironically we have a house guest from Vigo now.

train derailed before the curve. two systems failed in communication to train. Waiting to see why conductor did not/ could not manually correct speed before curve.. WAY before curve. Such a sad case. An unfortunate combination of several mistakes/malfunctions.

i've been sick over this since yesterday. And the irony is, today es el Dia de Santiago, the feast of St James.

Yes, cruiseluv. I have been in Santiago for this feast a couple of times before, and it has been such a shock.

The thing is, we usually feel that the train is safer than other means of transport, and this horrific accident has shown something different. But tomorrow afternoon I am getting on an Alvia, it is not stopping me.

Bye, Cova

Coa, are you in Santiago now?

There are many sad pictures of the tragedy in El Pais.

Cova one should get this accident into prospective. Terrible as it is The Spanish train system is very safe.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:A...en_Espa%C3%B1a
There is now 3 days national mourning and 7 days here in Galicia.
RENFE have now issued alternative routing for trains to and from Galicia. This information will be updated often So I will not add the details here. Please read details as they are published the following link:
http://www.renfe.com/empresa/comunic...cidencias.html

No, I´ve planned to be, but at the end I decided to stay in Madrid

Ribeira, I know it is safe. I am getting on an train tomorrow, and next weekend and also a couple of times in August. In fact, I used to fly a lot but now I get more trains, because the trip is longer but reliable. The Alvias are quite nice, with a bar and power outlets in all the seats, so it is quite comfortable (I tend to sleep a lot in train journeys ...)

Bye

This is such a fluke. The previous trains had no problems that day.

trains are now running over sections the accident. Read the link I gave above.

It seems the engineer loved speed and even posted on his FB page a picture of a train speedometer at a very high speed from another trip. Now it seems people died because of his fascination and RENFE apparently did not monitior his fetish.

<<This is such a fluke. The previous trains had no problems that day.>>

That's because the previous (and subsequent) trains had responsible engineers who didn't try to run that track section (speed limited at 50mph/80kph) at 120mph/200kph. Stupid engineer should spend the rest of his life in a cage.

One article some engineers reported this could NOT be human error. We'll have to wait and see.

There are reports that the same engineer posted online previously about how fast he loved to drive and how exciting it was. And he wanted to outrun the police cars.

Assume he will be charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide - and spend rest of life in jail.

But of course that can;t begin to make it up to the families of those lost and those who were injured.

It also makes you wonder what sort of background and psych checks they do on someone running a vehicle like this??/

Some of those comments/speculation posted here I find offensive to those who were involved some way in this accident. Especially those comments aimed, at those who cannot answer for themselves.
This is not a place for speculation, it is a place for tourist information.

The conductor is refusing to declare at police inquiry. I guess he needs to talk to his lawyers first or THINK of something. THIS I just do not understand.. THIS upsets me.

..or maybe that news I just read is false. If it is TRUE.. then I really wonder about it all.
A pity for all.

I still don't understand why the fail safe failed. I thought most modern trains have something like that. I do wonder if the driver could have been texting. There has been a number of train and subway crashes where drivers have been on their phones & not paying attention.

Just sad. The Renfe has state of the art trains and the safety and promptness of the trains I took in Spain were second to none.

Sadly, an American woman from my area was killed in the crash. Her daughter and husband were injured. They were visiting her son who was studying at a local university. Luckily he wasn't onboard. Just such a tragedy for all involved.

I have just read ( in El Pais) what Lin posted about the conductor.
This tragedy reminds me of the Concordia disaster:
.....the person in command " flirting" with danger for his own ego.

Sunday the driver of the train was charged with 79 counts of homicide by professional recklessness and an undetermined number of counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013...-.html?hp&_r=0

Sorry, I thought he might be high. He was texting and speeding that led to over 70 deaths.

Texting? I have read he was consulting a map or piece of paper while talking to an employee who called him on the work phone in the cabin. But what was he doing several minutes earlier when he was "distracted"?

Sorry, he was going twice the allowed speed when he was on the phone and shuffling papers.

He must have been distracted for quite awhile ... such a shame for all.

It is a great tragedy.

It seems to be obvious that the tragedy was caused by a conductor who didn't knew where he were. This has caused many accidents before, both on land and in the air. The problems regarding "Situational awareness" is today on the top of the list of aviation security. Therefore it has been developed routines where both the pilotes double-check and cross-check all travel information simultaniously so to elimainate that the pilot is desorientated. In this case the conductor was on his own and there were no ERTMS security - as in the Alta Velocidad-high speed lines elsewhere in Spain - on this line which would have taken control of the speed. In the last 80 km into Santiago the train from Madrid goes in monotony through some 30 tunnels and over some 30 bridges. The conductor was called up by the railway company a couple of minutes before the disaster about the further trajectory and had his nose in the papers when he realized the coming catastrophe. He only managed to reduce the speed from 192 km/h to 153 km/h when the curve came. His immediate reaction was that of a man in total despair who knew perfectly well what he had caused and who didn't want to live another day.

You know one should not read the press who translate the news from the Spanish press. There is more to this than is begin reported in the English speaking press is writing about.
The whole of yesterdays front page of my local news paper was full of information about the miss-information that is begin put around. It seems the English speaking press is only interested in adding flames to the miss-information. Also in the Spanish press are asking some thought proving questions, which also do not appear to be reported in the English speaking press.

Or how about the English translation by the Spanish.

http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html